Dons manager Paul Ince was satisfied with his side's 1-0 win over Leyton Orient at stadiummk, but refused to get carried away that their play-off push could be back on.

Mark Carrington's first-half header settled a hard-fought clash with the O's and ensured the eighth-placed Dons capitalised on dropped points from the three teams above them in the League 1 table.

But Ince was just happy to see his team put successive defeats behind them with a deserved victory.

"It was thoroughly deserved today," Ince told the media after the game. "I thought we were by far the better side and Willy only had one save to make.

"I'm disappointed we didn't put the game to bed - Chaddy had a great chance he's got to score from and there were two penalty appeals that were arguably penalties.

"But at this time of the season you've got to be happy with getting a result and 1-0 is a great result to have. We had to make our blocks and throw our heads in, so the spirit was certainly there.

"We're getting there, but nobodies getting carried away. I know it's an old cliché, but it's out of our hands so we've got to try to win one game at a time and if we do we'll see where it takes us."

Having taken the lead on 31 minutes, the Dons passed up some very presentable chances to make life more comfortable in the second period.

And Ince said it's important his forwards take the pressure off the back four by ensuring such chances are converted.

He said: "When you get chances you've got to take them to take pressure off your back four. We had good chances and if you don't take them you will get punished.

"It's happened to us a lot where we've had a lot of possession and chances and teams nick one late. You could see people getting nervous when the board went up with four minutes today, but we dealt with it today which should give us confidence.

"The result should have been more emphatic, it wasn't, but when you've lost two on the bounce it's just important to get back to winning ways."

Ince was absent from the technical area in the second period as he opted to watch the entire game from his viewpoint in the stands.

"I've got a bit of a chest infection at the moment and I thought if I spent the second half shouting at that lot it would make it worse so I decided to stay up there," the Dons boss laughed.

"It worked, so I might do it again!"